Students organize cookie sale fundraiser for Newtown

Saturday

Dec 22, 2012 at 12:01 AM

During a somber study hall session Monday, three Mendon eighth-grade students were discussing the Sandy Hook school massacre and feeling a need to reach out to the Connecticut school and its community.

By Jef RietsmaJournal Correspondent

During a somber study hall session Monday, three Mendon eighth-grade students were discussing the Sandy Hook school massacre and feeling a need to reach out to the Connecticut school and its community.

During that class period, Lara Speece, Kelsi Croster and Kaley Smith hatched what may have seemed like a far-flung plan. But the more they discussed a fundraiser for the school, the quicker everything fell into place.

First, though, the girls consulted physical education teacher Robert Kretschman and Principal Marc Kramer to pitch their idea to sell cookies outside the school gymnasium. The girls had the good fortune of four consecutive events taking place at the high school starting Monday night; three athletic events and the fall sports banquet Thursday.

Speece said she was surprised and glad to see Kretschman and Kramer offer their full support to their plan.

“Mr. Kretschman helped us out during gym class by putting a table outside the gym door and he brought over some chairs,” she said. “We had a really short amount of time from when school got out to when the (junior varsity) basketball game started.”

They ran to Speece’s house after school and managed to whip together batches of cookies they’d offer for sale before and during the game. They also made up a few signs to alert prospective donors the recipient of their cookie sales.

Once back at the school, they set up their stand and watched in amazement the generosity that unfolded. What they witnessed was something Croster said she, Speece and Smith never imagined.

“Some people were giving $10 and only taking one cookie, a guy gave us $20 and didn’t even take a cookie and Kelsi, Kaley and I felt bad because they were giving so much money and not taking as many cookies as they should have,” Speece, 14, said.

Their haul for the night, which took place during boys and girls JV and varsity basketball games, was $96. They exceeded that amount Tuesday night during seventh- and eighth-grade basketball games, when $119 was generated.

Croster, 14, said the amount raised Tuesday was a surprise because it was, after all, a middle school basketball game, which typically would not draw the size of crowd as a varsity contest.

Wednesday featured girls junior varsity and varsity basketball games, followed by the banquet on Thursday. In all, the girls raised $288. Their goal was $500, but they were far from disappointed.

Walmart in Three Rivers donated cookies and cupcakes for Wednesday’s and Thursday’s sales.

Smith, 13, said the three plan to continue selling cookies and baked goods when school resumes in January. They also plan to include handwritten letters to the school’s officials, recapping their efforts and offer their condolences when they send the money.

She said the kindness shown by strangers and friends at the sixth- through 12th-grade school has been inspirational.

“We were so surprised but glad so many people supported us,” Smith said. “And we never imagined any store would be so willing to help or the newspaper would think what we’re doing is important enough to do an article on us … we just had an idea out of the blue and reacted to do what we could to help.”

Kramer, now is in his fourth year as principal at the middle school/high school, saluted the trio for following through on their idea and showing such heart.

He said it’s not unusual for a student or group of students to rally for a cause, then lose momentum.

“Usually when kids that age find out how much effort has to go into making it work, they lose interest and it fizzles out,” Kramer said. “I’m thankful to have kids in this school who have big hearts … a lot of the kids here will look out for each other and for others, and that all goes back to their parents and the values they teach their kids.”

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